Epilepsy prevalence varies widely across Nigeria, with rates ranging from 3.1 to 37.0/1000 population. There have been no studies on epilepsy prevalence and treatment gap in the Northeast Region of Nigeria. This study aimed to study epilepsy prevalence and the epilepsy treatment gap (ETG) in an urban and a rural community in Northeast Nigeria.

Cross-sectional, community-based survey.

Epilepsy screening of residents in two communities in Northeast Nigeria using a WHO screening tool and a validated study questionnaire from 1 March to 10 June 2022.

8599 community residents aged ≥2 years.

Prevalence of epilepsy, active epilepsy, ETG and associated factors.

We screened 8599 residents, of whom 88 had epilepsy. Crude epilepsy prevalence was 10.2 per 1000 and was three times higher in the rural than in the urban community (18.5 vs 6.4; ²=26.79, p2=0.087, p=0.768). Logistic regression analysis showed that the ETG was associated with a lack of counselling (OR 15.8, 95% CI 3.5 to 70.7, p

The prevalence of epilepsy in Bauchi State was within the range reported in Nigeria but three times higher in the rural than in the urban community. A high ETG was associated with poor counselling of people with epilepsy. Epilepsy counselling, health education and wider access to neurology services could reduce the burden of epilepsy in Northeast Nigeria.

Pneumonia and diarrhoea are two of the major causes of child mortality globally. Countries affected by conflict and other humanitarian emergencies, such as Somalia, have a particularly high burden of these diseases. Published reports from UNICEF and WHO have shown that various factors, including social, economic and environmental factors, are all associated with the occurrence of childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence, burden and associated sociodemographic determinants of pneumonia and diarrhoea among children younger than 5 years (under-5 children) in Somalia.

A community-based survey using an interviewer-administered questionnaire was conducted employing a modified WHO Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) 30-Cluster sampling technique to identify households and respondents in nine selected districts across six member states in Somalia. The interviewers began selecting households starting from house number 1 and continued until 75 households were surveyed in each cluster.

We considered the catchment areas of 12 target maternal and child health (MCH) centres as our study areas. Villages were considered as primary sampling units (PSU) while households within villages were considered as secondary sampling units, where women (with under-5 children) within households were the respondents.

A total of 36 clusters (villages) were selected from the catchment areas of 12 target MCH centres. All households within the selected villages’ PSUs were listed. The interviewer started interviewing from house number 1 and continued till 75 households were covered to conduct interviews with mothers of under-5 children. Data collection took place between October and December 2023.

The prevalence and burden of childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea were estimated. A logistic regression model was employed to examine the determinants of childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea.

A total of 2483 under-5 morbidities were reported, 1712 probable pneumonia cases and 825 diarrhoea cases. Our calculations suggest that the prevalence of overall under-5 morbidity was 458.4 per 1000 children (95% CI 444.3 to 472.6) in the last 90 days. The prevalence of pneumonia and diarrhoea was 316.0 (95% CI 303.5 to 328.8) and 152.3 (95% CI 142.2 to 162.8) per 1000 under-5 children, respectively. A total of 70 under-5 deaths occurred in the past year, of which 37 were infants. Our exploration depicts an under-5 mortality rate of 39.3 deaths per 1000 live births per year (95% CI 30.6 to 49.7), and the infant mortality rate was 20.8 per 1000 live births per year (95% CI 14.8 to 28.6) in the study area, which is much lower than earlier estimates. The crude birth rate was 106.6 per 1000 population, and the stillbirth rate was 149.8 per 1000 births (95% CI 134.9 to 165.7), which is very high. We explored probable causes of 70 under-5 deaths and found that the highest proportion of under-5 deaths (22.9%) was due to acute respiratory infections (ARI), and about 15.7% were due to diarrhoea. Among other probable causes, congenital diseases (12.9%), accidents (11.4%) and measles (8.6%) were noteworthy.

This study revealed a high burden of pneumonia and diarrhoea among the studied population in Somalia. The study also identified important sociodemographic and environmental determinants that tend to increase the risk of pneumonia and diarrhoea among under-5 children.

Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Early detection and continuous monitoring are essential to preventing vision loss, yet traditional diagnostic tools remain largely inaccessible in low-resource settings.

This scoping review aimed to map the existing evidence on the use of portable devices for the detection, diagnosis and monitoring of glaucoma.

We conducted a scoping review in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute Manual and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. A comprehensive search was performed across major databases to identify studies that evaluated handheld tonometers, portable fundus cameras and visual field testing devices. Data were extracted on study design, population characteristics, devices used, comparators and reported outcomes.

A total of 216 studies published between 1975 and 2024 were included. Most studies (90.3%) were method agreement studies, primarily focused on intraocular pressure (IOP) devices. Only two studies evaluated all three glaucoma assessment domains (IOP, visual fields and fundus imaging). Most studies were conducted in high-income countries, with a smaller number from low- and middle-income countries. Despite variability in performance, many devices demonstrated acceptable agreement with gold standard methods and were assessed in a range of clinical and community settings.

This review highlights the range and characteristics of portable glaucoma devices and their potential for enhancing access to diagnosis and monitoring, particularly in underserved settings. However, the predominance of method agreement studies and the limited integration of multimodal assessments point to gaps in the literature. Future research should focus on comprehensive diagnostic pathways using multiple portable tools and on expanding evaluations in low-resource settings to inform policy and service planning.

Although flow cytometric analysis of peripheral blood neutrophil myeloperoxidase expression can accurately rule out myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS), it lacks reliability and efficiency due to the practical limitations of laboratory-developed liquid reagent-based assays. This study aimed to quantify the agreement and comparative discriminatory accuracy between a single-use flow cytometric lyophilised reagent tube (BD Lyotube Stain 468) and its laboratory-developed liquid reagent counterpart.

Cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study of two index tests against a reference diagnosis.

A university hospital in France.

Consecutive adult patients with an indication for bone marrow aspiration due to suspected MDS and unexplained peripheral blood cytopenia.

MDS confirmed by cytomorphological evaluation of the bone marrow aspirate performed in duplicate by experienced haematopathologists blinded to the index test.

Of 103 participants enrolled between July 2020 and August 2021, 37 had MDS (prevalence, 36%). The median intra-individual robust coefficient of variation (RCV) for myeloperoxidase expression was 30.9% using the BD Lyotube Stain 468 and 31.2% using the laboratory-developed liquid reagent assay, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.94 (95% CI 0.91 to 0.96). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.83 (95% CI 0.74 to 0.90) and 0.82 (95% CI 0.73 to 0.89), respectively. Using a prespecified threshold of 30.0%, the corresponding sensitivity estimates were 89% (95% CI 75% to 97%) and 95% (95% CI 82% to 99%).

BD Lyotube Stain 468 performs as well as its laboratory-developed liquid reagent counterpart for the quantification of myeloperoxidase expression by peripheral blood neutrophils. It may obviate the need for invasive bone marrow aspiration in up to 40% of patients with suspected MDS.

NCT04399018.